ABSTRACT
The Master’s voice ceased. And all in the room, both the visible and the invisible listeners, both the earthly and the heavenly visitors, remained united in a great chord of silence. The disciples saw, through the diminished light surrounding the bed, that the Master lay like one dead, but they knew that his soul had left his body and was exploring the upper regions. And they waited in a breathless tensity, vacillating between hope and fear. While they thus lived through a long moment of eternity, the light around the bed began to renew itself with a fresh radiance. A sun of joy illumined the features of Simeon ben Jochai as he opened his eyes and smiled at them—a deep smile, as from afar off. And his voice vibrated with a deep assurance as he taught them, saying:
